A day after the EU delegation termed Kashmir as an "integral part of India", the separatists today said this was inconsistent with its earlier stand on the issue.

A day after the EU delegation termed Kashmir as an "integral part of India", the separatists today said this was inconsistent with its earlier stand on the issue.

"The statement itself is not in line with the position taken by an EU delegation during its visit to the valley in 2004," a spokesman of the hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference said here.

In 2004, the EU delegation had described Kashmir as a "beautiful prison" and had called for peaceful resolution of the issue, he said.

The spokesman said a meeting of the hardline faction, chaired by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, today expressed surprise over the statement of the EU delegation, now visiting the valley.

Yesterday, emerging from a meeting with JKLF chief Yasin Malik, Swedish Ambassador to India Lars Olof Lindgran, the head of the EU delegation, said "Kashmir is an integral and important part of India".

"These (EU) countries have their own political interests and are giving preference to these over other issues.

"The European Union has failed to take a clear stand on Kashmir and Palestine," the amalgam spokesman said.